I am an emeritus professor from Cornell University and was a Commissioned Lay Preacher in the Presbyterian Church (USA). For many years I have followed the Daily Lectionary as printed in the Mission Yearbook of my church. For each day of a two-year cycle, the lectionary lists four psalms and three other scriptural passages--usually one from the Old Testament and two from the New Testament. My practice is to copy down a verse or two from one of the psalms and from each of the other three passages. After I have written out all four selections, I reflect upon them, rearrange their order, and incorporate them into a meditation. Sometimes I retain much of the original wording; sometimes all that remains of a selection is an idea that was stimulated when I read the original words. All selections are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible. For the Daily Lectionary, see the link below.

May 09, 2008

I. Readings
Psalms 49, 96, 138
Jeremiah 31:27-34
Ephesians 5:1-32
Matthew 9:9-17

II. Selections
Psalm138:1
I give you thanks, O LORD, with my whole heart;
before the gods I sing your praise ...

Jeremiah 31:33
But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

Ephesians 5:18b-19
...but be filled with the Spirit, as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts ...

Matthew 9:17
" ...Neither is new wine put into old wineskins; otherwise, the skins burst, and the wine is spilled, and the skins are destroyed; but new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved." [ Jesus to John's disciples]

III. Meditation: With whole hearts

Renew the wineskins of our hearts;
fill them up with your new wine,

that we may sing our psalms to you,
hymns of praise with our whole hearts;

and as your Spirit swells within,
the melody of joy and thanks,

write on our hearts your covenant-
we, your people; you, our God.

Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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